USA –-(Ammoland.com)- “The Justice Department’s civil rights division on Monday objected to a new photo ID requirement for voters in Texas because many Hispanic voters lack state-issued identification,” Pete Yost of Associated Press reported today.
DOJ Civil Rights Division head Thomas E. Perez, in a letter to the Texas Secretary of State, said he could not conclude the state’s newly-enacted voter ID law was not discriminatory, either in purpose or effect, Yost reports.
This is consistent with what Perez has maintained on previous occasions, as in his Dec. 23, 2011 letter to South Carolina’s Deputy Attorney General.
Where it’s inconsistent is with Justice’s position on enforcing gun laws. From Gun Rights Examiner’s January 17 column:
If Perez is correct, that lack of state-issued photo ID is 20% more likely to disenfranchise minorities from their right to vote, why would we not also believe it would have a similar effect on their right to purchase a firearm, as is specified on ATF’s Form 4473 requiring a driver’s license or “valid government issued photo identification,” and similar forms as proof of eligibility?
The government can’t have it both ways. By their own admission and actions, they consider a requirement to produce official photo identification as discriminatory, with a significant statistical impact on the enfranchisement of minority rights. Heller and McDonald leave no doubt that the Second Amendment articulates an individual right recognized by the federal government and applicable to the states, and it is the duty of the Department of Justice to ensure that denials of rights are prosecuted.
Likewise, state-issued identification is required to obtain concealed carry permits and to apply for registration/transfer of National Firearms Act weapons such as machine guns, short barrel firearms, destructive devices, AOWs, etc.
So the question now becomes why is the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division tolerating, allowing, and insisting on discrimination against minorities in general and Hispanics in particular when it comes to exercising their Second Amendment-recognized right to keep and bear arms?
And, of course, the answer is that the Obama/Holder Justice Department is hostile to that right, is racist in its application of the law, and is relying on fraudulent voter turnout to keep themselves and their fellow Democrats in power, assuming the incompetence of the Republicans at selecting a fire-in-the-belly principled candidate isn’t sufficient to let them win fair and square.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
